Anza Borrego Desert State Park

March 22, 1998 | JOHN McKINNEY, McKinney writes the Travel section's weekly Hiking column and is the author of the just-published "Day Hiker's Guide to California's State Parks" (Olympus Press)

Whoever said, "the earth laughs in flowers" wasn't kidding, I mused, as we witnessed the purple sand verbena shimmering in the desert breeze. It was the second week in March, and the wildflower spectacle along DiGiorgio Road in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park seemed to ridicule the desert's austerity. Our family laughed along with the flowers. Sophia, 6, shucked her hiking boots and wiggled her toes in the blooms. Daniel, 1, frolicked among the desert primrose.

March 14, 2014 | By Irene Lechowitzky, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Welcome to Borrego Springs, Calif., population 3,400, in the middle of nowhere (actually, about 150 miles southeast of L.A.). Throw away the smartphone; this is a place to unplug. This designated Dark Sky Community offers breathtaking views of the stars at night. The days aren't too shabby either, as my husband and I learned on a late February getaway. Be sure to stop at the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Visitor Center (200 Palm Canyon Drive; [760] 767-4205, http://www.parks.ca.gov/?

Harriet Allen, an environmentalist who mentored generations of desert activists and played a key role in the 1994 passage of the landmark California Desert Protection Act, has died. She was 95. Allen died Sept. 30 of complications related to old age at a Kaiser hospital in San Diego, her family said. "She waged a decades-long battle to educate everyone that the desert matters," said Elden Hughes, a longtime desert-protection activist. "The fact that the desert has sustained itself as well as it has is a tribute to Harriet Allen.

When the producers of “Last Days in the Desert” needed an environment for their biblical allegory, they knew just where to travel. They headed 31/2 hours southeast of Los Angeles to one of the largest state parks in the country. Spanning 600,000 acres, hundreds of miles of dirt roads and a dozen wilderness areas, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park has been an attractive, if underused, film location, featured in such movies as Warren Beatty's “Bugsy” and the Universal Pictures action film “The Scorpion King.” But the producers behind “Last Days in the Desert” liked the park so much that they opted to shoot all 24 days in the vast wilderness, which is named after 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza.

GETTING THERE: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park: From north county take Highway 78 east to Highway S2 north. From Highway S2, go east on Highway S22 into Borrego Springs and then turn left on Palm Canyon Drive to the park headquarters. From the south pick up 78 by taking Interstate 8 east to 67 north. For more information, call 767-5311. Visitor Center: The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Visitor Center will begin its winter hours Oct. 1. The center will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Three cheers for your editorial Feb. 4, "Off-Roaders Don't Belong in Anza-Borrego Desert." You failed to mention, however, one more good reason why off-roaders should be kept out of the state park: noise pollution. I travel the back roads of Anza-Borrego by mountain bike, and I wander in the back country on foot. One of my primary rewards is the peace and quiet and solitude which the desert offers, and which is easily destroyed by the whine of an all-terrain vehicle. Let the stimulation junkies get their adrenaline highs on their noisy vehicles, but please, not in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Here are some good flower-watching resources: Wildflower Hotline, run by the Theodore Payne Foundation, is the most comprehensive source for Southern California weekly wildflower reports. It updates information through the end of May. You can listen to reports by phone at (818) 768-3533 (let it ring several times) or download them at http://www.theodorepayne.org/hotline.html . Many local, state and national parks file online reports that update where wildflowers are blooming.

Sheriff's homicide detectives are investigating the discovery of two bodies over the weekend, one of a San Diego insurance salesman who was beaten and the other of an unidentified young woman, a sheriff's spokesman said. A ranger Saturday night found the body of Wayne Ronald Pasquill, 38, in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, said Lt. Bill Baxter, a sheriff's homicide detective.

To rebut the two letters of May 7 in favor of all-terrain vehicles being allowed in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park: Camping here seemed like the best time and place to answer those letters, and sure enough, it was. I met a man named Slim and his horse Dynamo at the south end of the park on their way to Riverside, so when Richard Fisher writes that a motor vehicle is necessary to enjoy the primitive state, he's wrong; and wrong again when he...

Here are some good flower-watching resources: Wildflower Hotline, run by the Theodore Payne Foundation, is the most comprehensive source for Southern California weekly wildflower reports. It updates information through the end of May. You can listen to reports by phone at (818) 768-3533 (let it ring several times) or download them at http://www.theodorepayne.org/hotline.html . Many local, state and national parks file online reports that update where wildflowers are blooming.

Reporting from Borrego Springs, Calif. -- The mood was buoyant and boosterish when the Borrego Desert Club had its grand opening party on Feb. 17, 1950. The luau went on for three days. Hawaiian singer Hilo Hattie provided the entertainment. Moneyed couples enjoyed the panoramic view of the desert and the glistening stars. A photographer for Life magazine was there to capture the fun. Designed by noted La Jolla architect William Kesling — known for his Streamline Moderne style — the Desert Club was envisioned by boosters as the social hub of an upscale resort community that would rival Palm Springs as a desert playground for the rich.

Harriet Allen, an environmentalist who mentored generations of desert activists and played a key role in the 1994 passage of the landmark California Desert Protection Act, has died. She was 95. Allen died Sept. 30 of complications related to old age at a Kaiser hospital in San Diego, her family said. "She waged a decades-long battle to educate everyone that the desert matters," said Elden Hughes, a longtime desert-protection activist. "The fact that the desert has sustained itself as well as it has is a tribute to Harriet Allen.

The rumors of the lilies seemed to be just that -- rumors. With my 10-year-old daughter, Isabella, in the passenger seat, I scanned the sands of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park from behind my bug-splattered windshield. The plan was to catch the dawn of this year's desert wildflower bloom in the state's largest park, more than 600,000 acres of sand, rock and cactus east of San Diego. After a series of winter storms, the desert was primed for a huge bloom.

Anza-Borrego is in bloom Wildflowers already? Anza-Borrego Desert State Park northeast of San Diego reports blooms of sand verbena, popcorn flower, desert lily and other plants along roadsides after the recent rains. Right now at the park, sand verbena is blooming along Henderson Canyon and desert apricot in Plum Canyon. Flowers also seem to be popping in the lower elevations of the park, including the Carrizo Badlands, Sweeney Pass, Bow Willow Campground and Indian Valley. Michael Rodrigues, the park's visitor center manager, thinks flowers at Anza-Borrego will peak between the third week of this month and the second week of March.

In response to your editorial "Silence at Anza-Borrego" (April 25): Your extreme position against off-road recreationists blinds you to the facts as well as simple logic. Off-road vehicles are not necessarily unlicensed, noisy, and uninsured. The California Vehicle Code takes care of all three of these and the permit system will give rangers the opportunity to check conformance if they so desire. Nor does it follow that a vehicle with a license plate is quiet and insured and will stay on the road.

The March 1 article about the "once-in-a-lifetime occurrence" of desert flowers due to El Nino (News, Tips & Bargains) inspired my wife and me to drive out to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park on March 2. The experience was significantly less than we expected. Visits in prior years offered much more in terms of variety and profusion of flowers. On March 2, there was only one area in bloom, and only a handful of different types. In fact, sand verbena was the only variety with any degree of profusion.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing state regulators to sign off on a high-voltage power line that a San Diego utility wants to build through the middle of California's largest state park. Proposed for Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the project puts Schwarzenegger again at odds with environmentalists -- and some state officials -- who believe he is allowing California's unrivaled collection of public preserves to be threatened.

There was a hotel room available in Borrego Springs on Saturday night. But it cost $380 at the most luxe resort in town. At the cheaper motels, the waiting lists were 10 deep. "You know," one clerk said, "the flowers." Let Japan flaunt its cherry blossoms and the Netherlands boast about its tulips. Here in California, we have a months-long flower festival that rolls slowly northward 400 miles through our deserts.